I am currently reading:

Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq by Linda Robinson

An excellent book on Petraeus and his role in the decisive years of the Iraq War.


Some other books I have read recently:

Threat Vector by Tom Clancy with
Mark Greaney

Jack Ryan Sr. is back in the White House for a second, non-consecutive term as president.  A failing economy leads to a coup against the Chinese president and politburo chairman who is saved by the head of the Chinese military.  To save the Chinese economy the president repays the military by launching an operation to take islands in the South China Sea, end Hong Kong autonomy and retake Taiwan.  To weaken the U.S. a secret cyber army launches a cyber attack.  Excellent!


Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles

Bert Stiles volunteered to join the U.S. Army Air Forces in January 1943, becoming an aviation cadet and receiving his wings and his commission as a 2nd lieutenant in November of that year.  In the spring of 1944 he began flying missions as a co-piliot on a B-17 Flying Fortress in the 91st Bomb Group.  He would fly 35 missions with the 91st before volunteering to fly fighters and joining the 339th Fighter Group.  On his 16th mission as a fighter pilot, Stiles apparently became disoriented after shooting down a Gerrman Fw-190 in a dog fight that descended to low altitude.  Stile's P-51 impacted the ground almost immediately, killing him.

Before joining the Army, Stiles had already become an accomplished author, having had short stories published by The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, and The American magazines.  While in the USAAF, Stiles continued to write and had articles published in the London Daily Mail, Yank, and Air Force Magazine.  He also worked on a manuscript about his experiences in the 91st Bomb Group, and after the war the manuscript was published under the title Serenade to the Big Bird.  The book earned almost instant cult status among aviation enthusiasts for its honest depictions of bomber combat and also won favorable literary reviews for its "spare, Hemingway-style prose and its anti-war sensitivity."  Knowing that Stiles didn't not survive the war gives his writing even more meaning; the book is very moving.

Excellent!


Final Patrol: True Stories of World War II Submarines by Don Keith

A good book about the 16 WWII era U.S. Navy submarines that have become museum ships, plus the U-505 which is on display in Chicago.


The Chase by Clive Cussler

It is 1906 and the western United States is being terrorized by a bank robber who murders any and all witnesses.  The Van Dorn Detective Agency is hired by the federal government to track down the killer and Isaac Bell is assigned to the case.  From Arizona to Colorado to the streets of San Francisco, Bell pursues the smartest and deadliest criminal mind he has ever encountered.  Fantastic!


The Secret of Stalingrad by Walter Kerr

Why Stalingrad?  What happened there in 1942?  How did it affect allied strategy in World War II?  These are questions Kerr, a war correspondent in Moscow during the war, tried to find the answers to when he returned to Russia in the years between 1967 and 1972.  As a result, Kerr provides a compelling account of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.  Excellent.


Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II by Barrett Tillman

An excellent history of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), from her authorization to her scrapping.  Tillman is a very good writer and an expert on U.S. Navy aviation.


The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden by Mark Bowden

An excellent book by the author of Black Hawk Down on the trail that found bin Laden and the mission that killed him.


Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War by Dakota Meyer and Bing West

The battle of Ganjigal resulted in the largest loss of American advisors, the highest number of distinguished awards for valor, and the most controversial investigations of dereliction of duty in the entire Afghanistan war.  This is the story of a man who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery in that battle.  At Ganjigal, Afghan soldiers and their U.S. Marine advisers walked into an ambush and Dakota Meyer charged in to rescue them.

Excellent!


Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe

This was the first novel ever published in England (1719) and is definitely a classic.  It started out very strong as Crusoe went from one misadventure to the next before ending up as a cast away on a desert isle in the Caribbean Sea (possibly Tobago, near Trinidad).  It got a little slow with Crusoe's descriptions of his housekeeping, but readers should definitely stick around for the second half of the book as it gets much, much better.

Fantastic book!



"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view."

-- Oscar Levant